Data center raised floor monitoring

ABSTRACT

One or more aspects relates to monitoring conditions under a raised floor in a data center. A grid of raised floor tiles has regular floor tiles interspersed with sensor floor tiles. The sensor floor tiles include: one or more sensors to monitor conditions under the raised floor; and one or more cameras to collect images of conditions under the raised floor. A sensor controller is used to locate a sensor tile with a sensor condition that is out-of-band from a reference condition band; and an image controller is used to locate an image difference corresponding to the out-of-band sensor condition.

PRIOR FOREIGN APPLICATION

This application claims priority from United Kingdom patent applicationnumber 1410364.2, filed Jun. 11, 2014, which is hereby incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

One or more aspects relate to data center raised floor monitoring.

One problem in data center management is the lack of informationconcerning under raised floor behavior. Data is difficult to gather andany physical modification can strongly impact cooling behavior andenergy efficiency of the data center.

US patent publication 2012/0072195, which is hereby incorporated byreference herein in its entirety, discloses modeling movement of airunder a floor of a data center.

US patent publication 2007/0171086, which is hereby incorporated byreference herein in its entirety, discloses an environmental monitor formonitoring conditions under a raised floor.

US patent publication 8,538,584, which is hereby incorporated byreference herein in its entirety, discloses an apparatus and method forcontrolling environmental conditions in a data center.

SUMMARY

In one aspect, a system for monitoring conditions under a raised floorin a data center is provided. The system includes, for instance, asensor tile, the sensor tile including one or more sensors to monitorconditions under the raised floor, the raised floor including a grid ofraised floor tiles having regular floor tiles interspersed with sensortiles; and one or more cameras to collect images of conditions under theraised floor. The system further includes a sensor comparator to locatea sensor tile with a sensor condition that is out-of-band from areference condition band; and an image comparator to locate an imagedifference corresponding to the out-of-band sensor condition.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way ofexample only, with reference to the following drawings in which:

FIG. 1A is one example of a side view of a tile of one embodimentshowing the sensors;

FIG. 1B is one example of a schematic view of a tile controller;

FIG. 1C is one example of an isometric view of the tile of oneembodiment;

FIG. 1D is one example of an isometric view of the tile of oneembodiment with regular tiles at the side and back;

FIG. 1E is an isometric view of the tile of one embodiment with regulartiles at the side, back and front;

FIG. 1F is one example of an isometric view of the tile with telescopelegs in a raised position and surrounded by regular tiles at the side,back and front;

FIG. 1G is one example of an isometric view of the tile with telescopelegs in a raised position and surrounded by at least five regular tilesat the side, back and front;

FIG. 2 is one example of a schematic view of a network of tilecontrollers and a tile controller coordinator;

FIG. 3 is one example of a deployment diagram of a tile controllercoordinator of one embodiment;

FIG. 4 is one example of a component diagram of a tile controllercoordinator of one embodiment; and

FIG. 5 is one example of a flow diagram of a process of the tilecontroller coordinator of one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIG. 1A, a sensor module 50 includes, for example: a sensortile 51; telescopic legs 52A, 52B (and 52C and 52D not shown); atemperature sensor 54A, a pressure sensor 54B, a humidity sensor 54C; atile controller 56; a camera 58A and an infrared camera 58B.

Sensor tile 51 is the tile that supports the sensors and controller ofone embodiment. In other embodiments, the sensors and controller may beattached to other parts of the sensor module 50 including the telescopiclegs 52A to 52D.

Telescopic legs 52A to 52D are connected to the four corners of thesensor tile 51 for raising the sensor tile up (so that it is higher thansurrounding tiles) and down (so that it is level with surroundingtiles). Four telescopic legs are used for stability, in one example, butthree or less telescopic legs are also envisaged.

Temperature sensor 54A is attached to the underneath side of sensor tile51 for measuring temperature underneath the raised floor and formeasuring the temperature in the room when the tile is raised above thelevel of the floor.

Pressure sensor 54B is attached to the underneath side of sensor tile 51for measuring air pressure underneath the raised floor and for measuringair pressure in the room when the tile is raised above the level of thefloor.

Humidity sensor 54C is attached to the underneath side of sensor tile 51for measuring humidity levels underneath the raised floor and formeasuring the humidity levels in the room when the tile is raised abovethe level of the floor.

Tile controller 56 is attached to the underneath side of the sensor tile51 for logging the data from the sensors and cameras.

Camera 58A is attached to the underneath side of sensor tile 51 forrecording images from underneath the raised floor. In one embodiment,camera 58A is a wide angle camera pointing down from the sensor tile. Anembodiment where at least two cameras are fixed to a camera post hangingfrom sensor tile 51 is also envisaged for capturing images underneathneighboring tiles. An embodiment where there is a single camera fixed toa rotating camera post is also envisaged.

Infrared camera 58B is attached to the underneath of sensor tile 51 forrecording infrared images from underneath the raised floor. In oneembodiment, infrared camera 58B is a wide angle camera pointing downfrom the sensor tile. An embodiment where at least two infrared camerasare between three normal cameras 58A on a camera post is envisaged. Anembodiment where there is a single infrared camera on the rotatingcamera post is also envisaged.

Referring to FIG. 1B, tile controller 56 includes, for instance: a datalogger 70; a local database 72; and an interface 74.

Data logger 70 is for logging data from the sensors and cameras.

Local database 72 is for storing the logged data.

Interface 74 is for passing the stored data to a tile controllercoordinator.

Referring to FIG. 1C, a sensor module 50 of one embodiment may be seenin isometric projection including: sensor tile 51; telescopic legs 52Ato 52D; and a dotted outline 70 on the outside of sensor tile 51representing the general area where the sensors, cameras and controllerare located on the underneath of sensor tile 51.

Referring to FIG. 1D, there is shown an isometric view of the sensortile 51 of one embodiment surrounded by five regular tiles 51′ at theside and back.

Referring to FIG. 1E, there is shown an isometric view of the sensortile 51 of one embodiment completely surrounded by eight regular tiles51′.

Referring to FIG. 1F, there is shown an isometric view of the sensortile 51 of one embodiment completely surrounded by eight regular tiles51′ and with the sensor tile 51 in a raised position.

Referring to FIG. 1G, there is shown an isometric view of a raisedfloor. One of the sensor tiles is in a raised position and surrounded byat least five regular tiles at the side, back and front.

Referring to FIG. 2, a network of tile controllers 56A to 56D (underrespective sensor tiles 51) are connected via network 20 to: a raisedfloor dynamic data warehouse 200; a data center infrastructure manager202; and a tile controller coordinator 400.

Four tile controllers 56A to 56D are shown, but it is envisaged thatmany more would be connected in one system.

Network 20 is any network but could also be the Internet.

Raised floor dynamic data warehouse 200 is for consolidating the datafrom the individual local data stores of the tile controllers.

Data center infrastructure manager 202 is a standard user interface formanaging data center infrastructure and connects to the network of tilecontrollers 56A to 56D via tile controller coordinator 400.

Tile controller coordinator 400 is for coordinating the data from thenetworked tile controllers so that useful information can be extractedand used by the data center infrastructure manager 202.

Referring to FIG. 3, the deployment of one embodiment including the tilecontroller coordinator 400; the raised floor dynamic warehouse 200; andthe data center infrastructure manager 202 in a computer processingsystem 10 is described. While one embodiment is a single computerprocessing system, each of the three components can be individuallydeployed in separate computer processing systems.

Computer processing system 10 is operational with numerous other generalpurpose or special purpose computing system environments orconfigurations. Examples of well-known computing processing systems,environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use withcomputer processing system 10 include, but are not limited to, personalcomputer systems, server computer systems, thin clients, thick clients,hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems,microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumerelectronics, network PCs, minicomputer systems, mainframe computersystems, and distributed cloud computing environments that include anyof the above systems or devices.

Computer processing system 10 may be described in the general context ofcomputer system-executable instructions, such as program modules, beingexecuted by a computer processor. Generally, program modules may includeroutines, programs, objects, components, logic, and data structures thatperform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.Computer processing system 10 may be embodied in distributed cloudcomputing environments where tasks are performed by remote processingdevices that are linked through a communications network. In adistributed cloud computing environment, program modules may be locatedin both local and remote computer system storage media including memorystorage devices.

Computer processing system 10 includes, for example: a general-purposecomputer server 12 and one or more input devices 14 and output devices16 directly attached to the computer server 12. Computer processingsystem 10 is connected to a network 20. Computer processing system 10communicates with a user 18 using input devices 14 and output devices16. Input devices 14 include one or more of: a keyboard, a scanner, amouse, trackball or another pointing device. Output devices 16 includeone or more of a display or a printer. Computer processing system 10communicates with network devices (not shown) over network 20. Network20 can be a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or theInternet.

Computer server 12 includes, for instance: a central processing unit(CPU) 22; a network adapter 24; a device adapter 26; a bus 28 and memory30.

CPU 22 loads machine instructions from memory 30 and performs machineoperations in response to the instructions. Such machine operationsinclude, for example: incrementing or decrementing a value in aregister; transferring a value from memory 30 to a register or viceversa; branching to a different location in memory if a condition istrue or false (also known as a conditional branch instruction); andadding or subtracting the values in two different registers and loadingthe result in another register. A typical CPU can perform many differentmachine operations. A set of machine instructions is called a machinecode program; the machine instructions are written in a machine codelanguage which is referred to as a low level language. A computerprogram written in a high level language is to be compiled to a machinecode program before it is run. Alternatively, a machine code programsuch as a virtual machine or an interpreter can interpret a high levellanguage in terms of machine operations.

Network adapter 24 is connected to bus 28 and network 20 for enablingcommunication between the computer server 12 and the network devices.

Device adapter 26 is connected to bus 28 and input devices 14 and outputdevices 16 for enabling communication between computer server 12 andinput devices 14 and output devices 16.

Bus 28 couples the main system components together including memory 30to CPU 22. Bus 28 represents one or more of any of several types of busstructures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheralbus, an accelerated graphics port, and a processor or local bus usingany of a variety of bus architectures. By way of example, and notlimitation, such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture(ISA), Micro Channel Architecture (MCA), Enhanced ISA (EISA), VideoElectronics Standards Association (VESA) local, and Peripheral ComponentInterconnects (PCI).

Memory 30 includes computer system readable media in the form ofvolatile memory 32 and non-volatile or persistent memory 34. Examples ofvolatile memory 32 are random access memory (RAM) 36 and cache memory38. Generally, volatile memory is used because it is faster, andgenerally, non-volatile memory is used because it will hold the data forlonger. Computer processing system 10 may further include otherremovable and/or non-removable, volatile and/or non-volatile computersystem storage media. By way of example only, persistent memory 34 maybe provided for reading from and writing to a non-removable,non-volatile magnetic media (not shown and typically a magnetic harddisk or solid-state drive). Although not shown, further storage mediamay be provided including: an external port for removable, non-volatilesolid-state memory; and an optical disk drive for reading from orwriting to a removable, non-volatile optical disk such as a compact disk(CD), digital video disk (DVD) or Blu-ray. In such instances, each canbe connected to bus 28 by one or more data media interfaces. As will befurther depicted and described below, memory 30 may include at least oneprogram product having a set (for example, at least one) of programmodules that are configured to carry out the functions of embodiments ofthe invention.

The set of program modules configured to carry out the functions of oneembodiment includes, for instance: raised floor dynamic data warehouse200; data center infrastructure manager 202; and tile controllercoordinator 400. Further program modules that support one or moreembodiments but are not shown include, for instance, firmware, a bootstrap program, an operating system, and support applications. Each ofthe operating system, support applications, other program modules, andprogram data or some combination thereof, may include an implementationof a networking environment.

Computer processing system 10 communicates with at least one network 20(such as a local area network (LAN), a general wide area network (WAN),and/or a public network like the Internet) via network adapter 24.Network adapter 24 communicates with the other components of computerserver 12 via bus 28. It should be understood that although not shown,other hardware and/or software components could be used in conjunctionwith computer processing system 10. Examples, include, but are notlimited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units,external disk drive arrays, redundant array of independent disks (RAID),tape drives, and data archival storage systems.

Referring to FIG. 4, tile controller coordinator 400 includes, forexample, the following components: tile interface 402; thresholdregisters 404; sensor comparator 406; image comparator 408; infraredimage comparator 410; data center interface 412; and tile controllercoordinator method 500.

Tile interface 402 is for communicating with the individual tilecontrollers.

Threshold registers 404 store the threshold reference data for thesensors so that the tile controller coordinator can determine when anindividual sensor has gone out-of-band (above or below thresholdreferences).

Sensor comparator 406 is for comparing actual sensor data with thresholdreference data.

Image comparator 408 is for comparing image data from a camera withreference image data and locating a difference.

Infrared image comparator 410 is for comparing infrared image data froma camera with reference image data and locating a difference.

Data center interface 412 is for communicating results with data centerinfrastructure manager 202.

Tile controller coordinator method 500 is for performing the method ofone embodiment using the other components of the tile controllercoordinator 400.

Referring to FIG. 5, tile controller coordinator method 500 includes,for example, logical process steps 502 to 516.

Step 502 is the start of tile controller coordinator method 500.Generally, method 500 loops periodically, but it may be triggered by anerror event or out-of-band sensor reading.

Step 504 is for querying, e.g., all tile controllers and receiving tilecontroller data including sensor reading that are out-of band (over orunder predetermined thresholds).

Step 506 is for defining a loop for each tile controller having anout-of-band sensor reading.

Step 508 is for locating differences in respective tile controllercamera images, first normal images and then infrared images, over aperiod of time corresponding to the out-of-band sensor reading.

Step 510 is for locating differences in respective tile controllercamera images with a tile raised and/or lowered.

Step 512 is for looping back to step 506 for the next out-of-band sensorreading.

Step 518 is for reporting alerts for image differences for out-of-bandsensor readings to data center infrastructure manager.

As described herein, in a first aspect of the invention, there isprovided a system for monitoring conditions under a raised floor in adata center including: a grid of closely spaced and raised floor tileshaving regular floor tiles interspersed with sensor floor tiles, thesensor floor tiles including: one or more sensors to monitor conditionsunder the raised floor; one or more cameras to collect images ofconditions under the raised floor; a sensor controller for locating asensor tile with a sensor condition that is out-of-band from a referencecondition band; and a camera controller for locating an image differencecorresponding to the out-of-band sensor condition.

In a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a sensor floortile for monitoring conditions under a raised floor in a data center,the raised floor including a grid of closely spaced and raised floortiles having regular floor tiles interspersed with sensor floor tiles,the sensor floor tile including: one or more sensors to monitorconditions under the raised floor; one or more cameras to collect imagesof conditions under the raised floor; a sensor controller for locating asensor tile with a sensor condition that is out-of-band from a referencecondition band; and a camera controller for locating an image differencecorresponding to the out-of-band sensor condition.

In a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a sensor floorcontroller for monitoring conditions under a raised floor in a datacenter, the raised floor including a grid of closely spaced and raisedfloor tiles having regular floor tiles interspersed with sensor floortiles, the sensor floor controller including: an interface to one ormore sensors to monitor conditions under the sensor tile; an interfaceto one or more cameras to collect images of conditions under the raisedfloor; a sensor comparator for locating a sensor tile with a sensorcondition that is out-of-band from a reference condition band; and acamera comparator for locating an image difference corresponding to theout-of-band sensor condition.

In a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided a method formonitoring conditions under a raised floor in a data center, the raisedfloor including a grid of closely spaced and raised floor tiles havingregular floor tiles interspersed with sensor floor tiles, the sensorfloor tiles having one or more sensors and one or more cameras tomonitor conditions under the sensor tile, the method including: locatinga sensor tile with a sensor condition that is out-of-band from areference in-band condition; and locating an image differencecorresponding to an out-of-band sensor condition.

One or more of the cameras is an infrared camera. An infrared camera isalso known as a thermal imaging camera. The infrared camera is, e.g., anuncooled infrared camera. One or more of the cameras is a visiblespectrum camera. In one embodiment, one or more of the cameras is a fullspectrum camera.

One or more cameras are wide angled and point down from the sensor tile.One or more cameras take pictures parallel with the surface of thesensor tile. A camera post mounted on the sensor can be raised orlowered. The camera post is controllable to rotate the mounted camera.Alternatively multiple cameras are mounted on the camera post. One ofthe sensors is one or more of: a temperature sensor; a pressure sensor;and a humidity sensor.

In a fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided a computer programproduct for monitoring conditions under a raised floor in a data center,the computer program product comprising a computer-readable storagemedium having computer-readable program code embodied therewith and thecomputer-readable program code configured to perform all the steps ofthe methods.

The computer program product comprises a series of computer-readableinstructions either fixed on a tangible medium, such as a computerreadable medium, for example, optical disk, magnetic disk, solid-statedrive or transmittable to a computer system, using a modem or otherinterface device, over either a tangible medium, including but notlimited to optical or analog communications lines, or intangibly usingwireless techniques, including but not limited to microwave, infrared orother transmission techniques. The series of computer readableinstructions embodies all or part of the functionality previouslydescribed.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that such computer readableinstructions can be written in a number of programming languages for usewith many computer architectures or operating systems. Further, suchinstructions may be stored using any memory technology, present orfuture, including but not limited to, semiconductor, magnetic, oroptical, or transmitted using any communications technology, present orfuture, including but not limited to optical, infrared, or microwave. Itis contemplated that such a computer program product may be distributedas a removable medium with accompanying printed or electronicdocumentation, for example, shrink-wrapped software, pre-loaded with acomputer system, for example, on a system ROM or fixed disk, ordistributed from a server or electronic bulletin board over a network,for example, the Internet or World Wide Web.

In a sixth aspect of the invention, there is provided a computer programstored on a computer readable medium and loadable into the internalmemory of a computer, comprising software code portions, when saidprogram is run on a computer, for performing all the steps of the methodclaims.

In a seventh aspect of the invention, there is provided a data carrieraspect that includes functional computer data structures to, when loadedinto a computer system and operated upon thereby, enable the computersystem to perform all the steps of the method claims. A suitabledata-carrier could be a solid-state memory, magnetic drive or opticaldisk. Channels for the transmission of data may likewise include storagemedia of all descriptions, as well as signal-carrying media, such aswired or wireless signal-carrying media.

One or more embodiments use out-of-band sensor readings to focus asearch for possible reasons in the images during the time periods forthe out-of-band sensor readings. Another embodiment is envisaged thatmonitors the images from all time periods for differences and uses thesensor readings to determine if these differences are significant.

Further embodiments of the invention are described. It will be clear toone of ordinary skill in the art that all or part of the logical processsteps of one or more embodiments may be alternatively embodied in alogic apparatus, or a plurality of logic apparatus, including logicelements arranged to perform the logical process steps of the method andthat such logic elements may include hardware components, firmwarecomponents or a combination thereof.

It will be equally clear to one of skill in the art that all or part ofthe logic components may be alternatively embodied in logic apparatusincluding logic elements to perform the steps of the method, and thatsuch logic elements may include components such as logic gates in, forexample, a programmable logic array or application-specific integratedcircuit. Such a logic arrangement may further be embodied in enablingelements for temporarily or permanently establishing logic structures insuch an array or circuit using, for example, a virtual hardwaredescriptor language, which may be stored and transmitted using fixed ortransmittable carrier media.

In a further alternative embodiment, one or more aspects may be realizedin the form of a computer implemented method of deploying a serviceincluding steps of deploying computer program code operable to, whendeployed into a computer infrastructure and executed thereon, cause thecomputer system to perform the steps of the method.

It will be appreciated that the method and components of one or moreembodiments may alternatively be embodied fully or partially in aparallel computing system including two or more processors for executingparallel software.

A further embodiment of the invention is a computer program productdefined in terms of a system and method. The computer program productmay include a computer-readable storage medium (or media) havingcomputer-readable program instructions thereon for causing a processorto carry out aspects of the present invention.

The computer-readable storage medium may be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (for example, lightpulses passing through a fibre-optic cable), or electrical signalstransmitted through a wire.

Computer-readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may includecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer-readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer-readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer-readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine-dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including anobject-oriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like,and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computeror entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the embodiments are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products. It will be understood thateach block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, andcombinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or blockdiagrams, can be implemented by computer-readable program instructions.

These computer-readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer-readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that thecomputer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereincomprises an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement aspects of the function/act specified in the flowchart and/orblock diagram block or blocks.

The computer-readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

It will be clear to one skilled in the art that many improvements andmodifications can be made to the foregoing exemplary embodiments withoutdeparting from the scope of aspects of the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for monitoring conditions under a raisedfloor in a data center, said system comprising: a sensor tile, saidsensor tile comprising: one or more sensors to monitor conditions underthe raised floor, the raised floor comprising a grid of raised floortiles having regular floor tiles interspersed with sensor tiles; and oneor more cameras to collect images of conditions under the raised floor;a sensor comparator to locate a particular sensor tile with a sensorcondition that is out-of-band from a reference condition band; and animage comparator to locate an image difference corresponding to theout-of-band sensor condition.
 2. The system according to claim 1,wherein at least one camera of the one or more cameras is an infraredcamera.
 3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the infrared camerais an uncooled infrared camera.
 4. The system according to claim 1,wherein at least one camera of the one or more cameras is a visiblespectrum camera.
 5. The system according to claim 1, wherein at leastone camera of the one or more cameras is a full spectrum camera.
 6. Thesystem according to claim 1, wherein at least one camera of the one ormore cameras is wide angled and points down from the sensor tile.
 7. Thesystem according to claim 1, wherein at least one camera of the one ormore cameras takes pictures parallel with the surface of the sensortile.
 8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the one or moresensors are one or more of: a temperature sensor; a pressure sensor; anda humidity sensor.
 9. A method for monitoring conditions under a raisedfloor in a data center, said method comprising: locating a sensor tilein the raised floor with a sensor condition that is out-of-band from areference in-band condition, the raised floor comprising a grid ofraised floor tiles having regular floor tiles interspersed with sensortiles, said sensor tiles having one or more sensors and one or morecameras to monitor conditions under the raised floor; and locating animage difference corresponding to an out-of-band sensor condition. 10.The method according to claim 9, wherein at least one camera of the oneor more cameras is an infrared camera.
 11. The method according to claim10, wherein the infrared camera is an uncooled infrared camera.
 12. Themethod according to claim 9, wherein at least one camera of the one ormore cameras is a visible spectrum camera.
 13. The method according toclaim 9, wherein at least one camera of the one or more cameras is afull spectrum camera.
 14. The method according to claim 9, wherein atleast one camera of the one or more cameras is wide angled and pointsdown from the sensor tile of which it is coupled.
 15. The methodaccording to claim 9, wherein at least one camera of the one or morecameras takes pictures parallel with the surface of the sensor tile ofwhich it is coupled.
 16. The method according to claim 9, wherein theone or more sensors are one or more of: a temperature sensor; a pressuresensor; and a humidity sensor.
 17. A computer program product formonitoring conditions under a raised floor in a data center, saidcomputer program product comprising: a computer readable storage mediumreadable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for executionby the processing circuit for performing a method comprising: locating asensor tile in the raised floor with a sensor condition that isout-of-band from a reference in-band condition, the raised floorcomprising a grid of raised floor tiles having regular floor tilesinterspersed with sensor tiles, said sensor tiles having one or moresensors and one or more cameras to monitor conditions under the raisedfloor; and locating an image difference corresponding to an out-of-bandsensor condition.
 18. The computer program product according to claim17, wherein at least one camera of the one or more cameras is wideangled and points down from the sensor tile of which it is coupled. 19.The computer program product according to claim 17, wherein at least onecamera of the one or more cameras takes pictures parallel with thesurface of the sensor tile of which it is coupled.
 20. The computerprogram product according to claim 17, wherein the one or more sensorsare one or more of: a temperature sensor; a pressure sensor; and ahumidity sensor.